May 07, 2021 · Hoffa was never found, but according to former mob lawyer Reginald “Bubba” Haupt Jr., there might finally be a break in the case. As Bubba would have you believe, Hoffa isn’t sipping Mai Tais in...
Frank Ragano | |
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Years active | 1952-1990 |
Attorney Bill Bufalino represented Jimmy Hoffa for decades until his mobster cousin Russell Bufalino wanted the union president gone. We all love a good mobster movie, especially when it reveals some of the most cold-blooded players of America’s underbelly enjoying the most mundane aspects of everyday life. This is the idea behind ...
The fiery and hot-tempered Hoffa had known connections to the Pennsylvania mob and often came under police scrutiny for racketeering and other underworld crimes. As Bufalino later said about his friend Hoffa, “There’ll never be another one like that in the Teamsters.
In 1967, Hoffa was arrested for jury tampering, fraud, and bribery. During his prison sentence, he was replaced in both the eyes of the Teamsters and the mobsters who had helped him to reach his presidency and in 1971 he relinquished his post, allowing Frank Fitzsimmons to become the new union leader.
In order to keep Hoffa from leaking any information about the plot , he was taken out.
But Bill Bufalino came under scrutiny himself for his connection to the American mafia. In an attempt to clear his name, Bufalino ended up suing the Attorney General at the time, Robert F. Kennedy, and Senator John McClellan for defamation.
Then, on July 30, 1975, Jimmy Hoffa mysteriously disappeared from the Machus Red Fox Restaurant parking lot in Detroit. He had been on his way to meet with a pair of mobsters to discuss his return to the Teamsters union. He was never to be seen alive or dead again.
Around this time, Bill Bufalino also broke off his relationship with the union boss. Bufalino believed that Hoffa had used other people for his own gain and no longer wanted to be a part of his schemes — at least that’s what Bufalino reported.
Former mob attorney claims Jimmy Hoffa is buried under a Georgia golf course (relax, not Augusta National) It’s been 46 years since Jimmy Hoffa, the most powerful union force in America and known mob consort, disappeared from the Machus Red Fox, a restaurant in suburban Detroit where he was scheduled to have a meeting with mob contacts.
So there you have it, folks. Jimmy Hoffa’s grave has been found and it’s been used as a urinal for 45 years. Who wants to go dig that up?
“The package was flown in here from Detroit,” the attorney recounts, saying that Hoffa’s body was transported in a Beechcraft King Air plane which landed at the island’s then-dirt runway. “They would probably locate him where no one would ever suspect.
Hoffa was never found, but according to former mob lawyer Reginald “Bubba” Haupt Jr., there might finally be a break in the case. As Bubba would have you believe, Hoffa isn’t sipping Mai Tais in Tahiti or sleeping with the fishes in Lake Michigan. He’s buried beneath a Georgia golf course. But don't worry, it’s not Augusta National.
By 1960 Ragano was already known as a shrewd, up-and-coming criminal defense attorney, who defended a wide range of clients. Thanks to a recommendation from Santo Trafficante, Ragano was hired by Jimmy Hoffa to represent him on union corruption charges, thus beginning a long association with the infamous labor leader. He used his position with Hoffa to help place loans from the Teamsters' pension funds in return for "finder's fees." Liberace, the entertainer, was one such client for whom he attempted to get a Teamsters' loan. Ragano witnessed kickbacks of millions of dollars to Hoffa from the Teamsters' pension fund.
In 1975, Ragano was asked by Trafficante to convey an urgent message to Hoffa to "be very careful and not take any chances.".
Kirkus Reviews described Mob Lawyer as a "riveting memoir of life inside the murderous world of Mafia chieftain Santo Trafficante and Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, by their personal lawyer" and an "insider's impossible-to-put-down account of life within the 'Honorable Society.'" In a review for ABA Journal, Martin Kimel called it an "intelligent memoir" and wrote: "Despite the seaminess of its cast of characters, Mob Lawyer is engrossing reading and an object lesson in lifestyles of the rich and infamous." Publishers Weekly said: "The story, which profits from the smooth style of New York Times crime reporter Raab, has less impact as an account of a man who woke up too late than for its revelations about significant events of our time." Ronald Goldfarb reviewed the book for The Washington Post stating: "Ragano's biography of his career is full of naive rationalizations about the virtues of these men he cavorted with and represented..., and self-serving criticism of the government's Gestapo-like tactics, selective prosecution, use of spies as witnesses and intimidation of suspects' families." Goldfarb added, "Cynics will wonder whether Mob Lawyer is merely the latest entry in the books-by-crooks genre. Except for the shocking disclosures about his deceased former clients, there is no reason to read this book. With them, however, it joins a select few that provide critical links in the circumstantial case that the mob planned JFK’s killing."
He stated he was chosen by Hoffa because , as both Hoffa and Trafficante's lawyer, he could be assured of attorney–client privilege. Ragano said that Jim Garrison served as a patsy for the New Orleans mob by disseminating theories that served to distract attention from mafia figures who were involved in the plot.
Although Ragano believed he had received a few hints from both Trafficante and Marcello that they had somehow been involved in the Kennedy assassination, it was not until just before he died in 1987 that Trafficante, according to Ragano, made a direct confession to him. Ragano wrote that on March 13, 1987, a dying Trafficante (he died four days later) asked to meet him in Tampa for a hurried meeting. While riding in Ragano's car, Trafficante allegedly told Ragano in Sicilian: "Carlos e' futtutu. Non duvevamu ammazzari a Giovanni. Duvevamu ammazzari a Bobby," which Ragano translated as: "Carlos screwed up. We shouldn't have killed John. We should have killed Bobby." Ragano stated three witnesses could support his statement that he met Trafficante in Tampa. He refused to name them adding: "One guy is afraid of retaliation. The other guys are two doctors, who say they'll testify if they're summoned to court."
Kennedy assassination, and he denied any involvement in any JFK plots. In 1981 Ragano was reinstated as an attorney by The Florida Bar, and eventually made amends with Trafficante, whom he then represented in 1986 in a racketeering case also made famous in the film Donnie Brasco. Trafficante, who was also represented by others, was acquitted of all charges.
Liberace, the entertainer, was one such client for whom he attempted to get a Teamsters' loan. Ragano witnessed kickbacks of millions of dollars to Hoffa from the Teamsters' pension fund. In 1963, again on Trafficante's recommendation, Ragano began serving as attorney for Carlos Marcello, the head of the New Orleans crime family.
Enlarge Image. Robert Foley (center) addresses the media in Oakland Township, Mich., where he announced on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, the FBI was ending search operations for the remains of Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa, who disappeared from a Detroit-area restaurant in 1975. AP Photo/Carlos Osorio.
Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance in 1975 has long been presumed to be part of a mob hit — though his body has yet to turn up.
Haupt’s former client, Lou Rosanova — identified by the feds as a top member of the Chicago mob — once ran the hotel at the resort.
The bureau wouldn’t comment to the outlet — but its Hoffa investigation remains open.
In early 1976, the FBI put out a report of its findings in what was known as the Hoffex Memo, the list of suspects including other tough-guy names like Vito "Billy Jack" Giacalone and Salvatore "Sally Bugs" Briguglio. Unfortunately, although investigators felt they were on the right path, they found no one willing or able to confirm that Hoffa's disappearance directly resulted from mob involvement.
At the end of the decade, another hitman, Donald "Tony the Greek" Frankos suggested the enduringly popular notion that Hoffa was buried beneath Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.
However, none offered any substantial information, often invoking the Fifth Amendment in lieu of answers.
Three weeks after the search commenced, the FBI had a lead when police dogs discerned Hoffa's scent in the backseat of a Mercury Marquis Brougham.
ico_comments_squared. ico_print. In the minutes after 2 p.m. on July 30, 1975, former International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union President Jimmy Hoffa impatiently waited outside the Machus Red Fox Restaurant in Bloomfield Township, Michigan. He was there to meet a couple of Mafia honchos — Anthony "Tony Jack" Giacalone, from Detroit, ...
Born in 1913 in Brazil, Indiana, James Riddle Hoffa received an early lesson about the hazards of unsafe working conditions when his coal-miner father died of lung cancer in 1920.
Ordered to kill Hoffa by the powerful and secretive Pennsylvania boss Russell Bufalino, Sheeran headed to the Machus Red Fox with O'Brien and Briguglio on that fateful day to tell Hoffa that the meeting spot had been moved.
Speaking with NPR, author James Heff said that the general consensus that Kennedy's cross-examinations of Jimmy Hoffa had been "inept" was correct; Robert Kennedy was not a litigator, and Hoffa went out of his way to trip up the politician and embarrass him.
As reported by NPR, Robert Kennedy publically called Jimmy Hoffa "the most dangerous man in America." He even set up an unofficial "Get Hoffa" squad at the Justice Department that at its height had 20 prosecutors assigned to run grand juries across the United States against Hoffa and the Teamsters.
Frank Ragano (January 25, 1923 – May 13, 1998) was a self-styled "mob lawyer" from Florida, who made his name representing organized crime figures such as Santo Trafficante, Jr. and Carlos Marcello, and also served as lawyer for Teamsters leader Jimmy Hoffa. In his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer, Ragano recounted his career in defending members of organized crime, and made the controversial allegation that Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante, Jr. confessed to him shortl…
On January 14, 1992, Ragano told Jack Newfield of the New York Post that he relayed a request from Hoffa to Trafficante and Marcello asking that the two Mafia bosses kill Kennedy. He repeated the claim two days later on ABC's Good Morning America, in Newfield's Frontline report entitled JFK, Hoffa and Mob broadcast in November 1992, and again in his 1994 autobiography Mob Lawyer.
Born in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida to Sicilian parents, Ragano attended Stetson Law School and clerked for the Florida Supreme Court before admission to the Florida Bar in 1952 and beginning his trial practice in Tampa, Florida. In 1954 he was recruited by another attorney to represent several defendants arrested in Tampa for involvement in Santo Trafficante, Jr.'s illegal bolitaoperations. He immediately befriended Trafficante, who thereafter admitted him into the inner circles of Flor…
By 1960 Ragano was already known as a shrewd, up-and-coming criminal defense attorney, who defended a wide range of clients. Thanks to a recommendation from Santo Trafficante, Ragano was hired by Jimmy Hoffa to represent him on union corruption charges, thus beginning a long association with the infamous labor leader. He used his position with Hoffa to help place loans from the Teamsters' pension funds in return for "finder's fees." Liberace, the entertainer, was one …
In 1966, while representing Trafficante in connection with an arrest of several top mobsters in New York City, Ragano was photographed having lunch with Trafficante, Marcello and others, and was identified by Time magazine as a "top Cosa Nostra hoodlum." He later sued Time for libel and was represented by famed trial lawyer Melvin Belli. During the libel trial he was called "house counsel for the mob." He lost his suit. Belli had previously represented Jack Ruby, the man who k…
In 1994, Ragano's autobiography Mob Lawyer was published by Charles Scribner's Sons. The book was co-written with Selwyn Raab, a reporter for The New York Times.
Kirkus Reviews described Mob Lawyer as a "riveting memoir of life inside the murderous world of Mafia chieftain Santo Trafficante and Teamster boss Jimmy Hoffa, by their personal lawyer" and an "insider's impossible-to-put-down account of life within the 'Honorable Society.'" In a review for ABA …
In August, 2013, The Tampa Tribune newspaper and ESPN published allegations by a former employee of the Palma Ceia Country Club in Tampa, claiming that in 1973 the employee overheard Ragano, Trafficante and Marcello discussing plans by Bobby Riggs to throw the famed tennis match with female tennis star Billie Jean King. That year, Riggs and King held a nationally televised tennis match called "The Battle of the Sexes," in which King beat Riggs in three straigh…
• Mob Lawyer (1994), Frank Ragano and Selwyn Raab, Charles Scribner's Sons, ISBN 0-684-19568-2
• Cigar City Mafia: A Complete History of the Tampa Underworld (2004), Scott M. Deitche, Barricade Books, ISBN 1-56980-266-1
• The Silent Don: The Criminal Underworld of Santo Trafficante, Jr. (2007), Scott Deitche, Barricade Books, ISBN 1-56980-322-6